The Future of Television has Arrived and You Get to Help!

My lovely and talented bride and I were watching a movie on the FX Network on satellite when the future of TV presented itself. I thought it was a joke at first, then realized the second time we saw the spot that it was not.A man who identified as John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX network came on the screen and in a humorous pitch said “I bet you have the next big idea for a comedy series. ” He was partially plugging an upcoming series with Danny Divito called “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” He says the idea for that came together from a project that three guys put together for $200.00. The promo goes on to say you could win $50,000.00 dollars if your idea is chosen.It’s not a bad idea. It has to be better than the current crop of crap that passes for entertainment.It also reminds me efforts by some news operations that let the viewers decide what stories they will cover. I’m assuming those efforts did not do well because if they had, every consultant who knows how to charge a fee would be hawking this idea as THE way to drive viewers to watch.It also reminds me of efforts by the Ford Motor company to let the people design a car back in the 50’s. That collaboration ended in “The Edsel”. We all know what that name is synonymous with.